Are You Addicted to Your Mobile Device?

The term “mobile addict” has been coined to describe someone who launches an app on their mobile device 60 or more times a day. The problem is that numbers are growing. Flurry published findings stating 176 million users qualify as addicts, which is up an insane 123 percent from 2013. How many times a day do you launch your apps? Would you be classified as a mobile addict? I would.

This is truly an epidemic that I believe is actually ruining communication. The classic "generation gap" is getting worse as the younger generations rely more and more on technology and not on good old face-to-face communication. In my humble opinion, it's also hampering common courtesy as we turn inward to our own world, leaving everyone else out.

Here's a play on the "You might be a redneck" jokes by Jeff Foxworthy:

- If you have your phone/ipad/other device with you at the dinner table, you might be addicted.

- If you text in a moving car while driving, while someone is talking to you, while walking down the street or even while CROSSING a street, you might be addicted.

- If you leave your device at home by accident, get to work and turn around to go home to get it, you might be addicted.

- If someone else's phone rings and you check yours, you might be addicted.

- If you check your device WITHOUT IT MAKING A SOUND every 3 minutes or less, you might be addicted.

- If you find yourself while in the middle of a conversation saying "I have to take this" and it isn't life or death, you might be addicted.

These devices are a blessing and a curse. The ability to keep up with loved ones, to be able to reach out to them at any time, to not have to stand in line for a phone booth (remember those?) - these are all blessings. Accidents while texting, rudeness and other distractions to communicating one-on-one with another human being fall under the "curse" piece for me.

Addict? Not really. However, I do find myself "lost" if I forget to grab my cell before heading off to work. Those long 10 hours leave me wondering who is trying to get a hold of me, even though chances are I will receive no calls.

I regret to inform that yes, maybe, I'm a mobile addict. I've grown up in a generation where living without a mobile phone is kind of hard to do. I don't have a landline so it's my sole form of communication when I have to make phone calls to friends and family, services for my home, and so on. App launching is something I try not to do too much of because of battery drain and slow downs (I clear out my recently launched apps constantly because if I'm not using them, why have them run all the time, in the background, draining battery?). I probably teeter on the edge of normalcy and addiction; apps not so much. Communications though? Phone calls and text messages? Yeah, you got me.

Good question... I might have to take a one-day tally and find out! I do spend a great deal of time on my phone, mostly checking work-related emails. From that perspective, I think the extreme growth in what you've presented as a "mobile addict" probably has a strong correlation to the rise in BYOD policies and tablet usage. Both are great for on-the-go productivity.

I have seen people using the mobile (or cell as it is called in US, India...), quite a lot. It is seen in Australia & India that the mobile is used more than 60 times a day, beside calls or texting.

While many app's can be helpful, the addiction is alarming.

It is not only mobile app's, we need to consider addiction to any gadget - like Wii, games on iPAD or similar devices.

The age groups in this addiction is anywhere from the age of say 4 to 45. How about the other age groups?

Such addiction is resulting in people not using their time for other activities - both physical and mental. Constant clicking with one or two fingers can be affecting their physical abilities, if they can not use all fingers as in the case of touch typing.

It all sounds too hyperbolic to me. Even if one where to take the definition of compulsively habituated, it feels like these sort of articles are out for shock and FUD value alone. Addiction, real addiction, is a serious problem than can destroy your life. Pretend addictions like smart phone use seem to trivialize and devalue a very real problem for some.

I see the overuse of smart phones as the equivalent to fidgeting in the digital age. It's excess time and energy being directed in a meaningless and harmless way. People have always engaged in minor pastimes and diversions. I see nothing new here.

In some ways, these stories bring Macbeth to mind... "a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

Over the last couple months I have been trying to distance myself from my iPhone. Partly because I’m frustrated with the dying battery, apps failing randomly and spotty home button, it’s an old iPhone4, but also because I was on it constantly. So far so good. There has yet to be a situation where I REALLY needed it but there have been a few where it would have come in handy. We’ll see how long the independence lasts though…especially since I’ll be upgrading soon.

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